Godwits - with a difference.

A few years back I had a holiday in Washington State in the USA. One of the specially nice things I did was to go out to the west coast to see the migrating shorebirds. It was August and the birds were migrating south after breeding up in the far north. We traveled to the Grays Harbor area and I think these photos were taken at Tokeland.
We walked out on one of the piers. On one side the Godwits were walking and feeding in the shallow water and on the other side they were all lined up along another pier that was not in use.
These are not the Bar-tailed Godwits I know and see out here (in SE Queensland, Australia) but are Marbled Godwits (Limosa fedoa). As far as I know they are from the sub-race beringiae which breeds in Alaska and winters down in California. (I hope this is right - my books are not detailed about the species in North America.) It was fascinating to see these birds which looked similar to the Bar-tailed Godwits I know out here but which were quite a different color. The bill also looks straighter than that of the Bar-tailed Godwits.
As we stood watching on the pier there were more flying in to some other roost site a little to the west of us.
I was told that there are even greater numbers of shorebirds seen during a shorter period during the migration northwards. This migration starts around April 21 and continues for about 3 weeks. It would be great to be there during that time and to see so many birds all using the area to feed and rest.

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.